Egyptian-British writer and activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been named Writer of Courage 2024 and co-recipient of the PEN Pinter Prize by PEN English and the other co-recipient, Arundhati Roy. Roy, an Indian writer known for her outspoken criticism of the Indian government, made the announcement during a ceremony at the British Library in London on October 10, 2024 in which Naomi Klein delivered the encomium.
Per PEN English, “The Writer of Courage is awarded to an author who is active in defense of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty, and shares the PEN Pinter Prize with the winner.” The PEN Pinter Prize is awarded annually to a writer resident in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Commonwealth or former Commonwealth who casts an “unflinching, unswerving’ gaze upon the world, and shows a ‘fierce intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies.”
Arundhati Roy, a prominent writer and activist, shared the reasons for her choice:
Why did I choose the jailed writer and blogger Alaa Abd el-Fattah as the Writer of Courage to share the PEN Pinter Prize with? For the same reason that Egyptian authorities have chosen to keep him in prison for two more years instead of releasing him last month. Because his voice is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Because his understanding of what we are facing today is as sharp as a dagger’s edge.
Abd el-Fattah has been unjustly imprisoned by the Egyptian government since 2019. He should have been released in September 2024 after serving his five year sentence, but the authorities intend to keep him imprisoned until January 2027. He was initially detained following a social media post where he drew attention to the alleged torture-related death of a fellow inmate. Subsequently, he was referred to the Supreme State Security Prosecution and charged with joining a terrorist group, disseminating false information, and misusing social media. Abd el-Fattah has been in jail multiple times since 2014.
He has one published book, You Have Not Yet Been Defeated (2022), a collection of essays, social media posts and interviews from 2011 to 2021, mostly written while in prison. This collection reveals Abd el-Fattah as a fiercely independent thinker and activist, and a powerful voice for a generation grappling with systemic failures. He has come to symbolize the spirit of revolution and change that has marked the past decade. Many writers, including Mona Elthawy and Teju Cole have spoken up against Abd el-Fattah’s illegal imprisonment, particularly during his hunger strike in 2022.
For those of us who are engaged in a quest of truth finding, through writing or journalism or other avenues, Alaa’s courage lies somewhere there. It’s, as orated by Bertolt Brecht in an anti-fascist gathering, the courage of recognizing the truth when it is hidden, the skill to turn it into something we can fight with, the cunning of finding in whose hands to put it and spread it. In his writing; newspaper articles, social media posts, and prison letters, Alaa was finding the truth in and through language; and he has always been doing it not as a self-serving act of contemplation, but as an invitation to learn, think along and move on with it. In prison, his writing became a fugitive body on incarceration as the ultimate underside of state management. Such were the politics of his writings that are worthy of this recognition.
Previously, the PEN Pinter Prize has been awarded to Zimbabwean novelist and activist Tsitsi Dangaremgba in 2021 who selected Ugandan novelist Kakwenza Rukirabashaija to share the award as Writer of Courage, Jamaican-British poet Linton Kwesi Johnson who shared his award with Eritrean poet Amanuel Asrat in 2020, and Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie who selected Saudi Arabian lawyer and activist Waleed Abulkhair as co-winner in 2018. Together, these prizes recognize and celebrate writers, such as Abd el-Fattah, determined to use their voice to challenge injustice all over the world.
Acclaimed journalist Naomi Klein, who also wrote the foreword to his book, delivered the encomium, praising Abd el-Fattah:
Alaa Abd el-Fattah embodies the relentless courage and intellectual depth that Arundhati Roy herself so powerfully represents, making her selection of him as the Writer of Courage profoundly fitting. Despite enduring a series of unjust sentences that robbed him of over a decade of freedom, his liberation continues to be denied. This prize, shared between two vital voices, reminds us of the urgent need to continue to raise our own in a call to ‘Free Alaa’ at long last.’
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